Update From Around the Globe – July 2015

– We are one game a piece in the Ashes
– Queensland trounce NSW in the State of Origin
– Wimbledon had another great year
– Greece is close to securing another 80 billion Euro (with strings attached)
– The China Government is pulling out all stops to halt the China share market falling further
– Donald Trump running for the US Presidency
– In Australia, the stock market is holding steady
– Real Estate and property development in South East Queensland is being “talked up”
– The lower Aussie dollar may lead to more overseas visitors
– The Prime Minister shared his thoughts with Gold Coast audience at the TSS breakfast on Friday 10 July
– There have been a number of interesting economic matters unfolding offshore:

GREECE

Greek citizens voted in Tspiras (Prime Minister) hoping to ease austerity and gain debt relief from the Euro Zone. But sadly after the Euro Leaders have provided 220 billion Euros to support Greece, they are coming down tougher on Greece now, even after Greek voters said no to the bailout proposal presented a few weeks ago. The Greek government owes 323 billion Euros, 75% to foreign creditors:

Big numbers, with some similarities to the story of Alan Bond back in the 1980’s. If he went broke, he would take down several Banks with him, so they had to keep lending him money. Still didn’t turn out well … What will happen to Greece.

ICELAND

Interesting, Iceland faced a major economic and political crisis between 2008-2011. Relative to the size of its economy, Iceland’s systemic banking collapse was the largest experienced by any country in economic history (Wikipedia). The crisis led to a severe economic depression in 2008-2010 and significant political unrest.

But by mid-2012 Iceland was regarded as one of Europe’s recovery success stories.

CHINA

Did you wonder why the China Stock Market managed to stop falling earlier this month?

The Chinese Government instigated:

– Artificial buying to prop up the market,
– Banning pension funds from selling stocks
– Threatening to jail investors for shorting stocks
– Enforcing 1,350 out of 2,900 major firms to halt trading in their stocks indefinitely
– Stopping trades on another 750 that fell 10% or more!
– As an Australian business owner, it poses the question; “is this offshore economic instability going to affect my business”.

Whilst there is a more direct impact for those businesses who import or export goods and services due to the weaker Australian dollar; for the most part, we by no means have the answer to this question.

However, we encourage you to focus on the factors you can control within your business, being aware of the “offshore predicaments”, but not dwelling on them.

Take into consideration what changes may need to happen in your business if this economic instability is to reach the shores of small/medium businesses in Australia.